They join several hundred US Army and Air Force special
operations troops who have been working alongside
anti-Taleban forces throughout Afghanistan - most
effectively in the north - for weeks.

Air campaign

The arrival of US troops in southern Afghanistan coincided with the capture of the northern city of Kunduz by the Northern Alliance after a two-week siege of Taleban forces there.

Thousands face starvation in Kandahar

The US air campaign is also continuing - focused largely on targets around Kandahar and Jalalabad, including caves in those areas.

Tribal leaders said they had captured the southern town of Spin Boldak from the Taleban without meeting any resistance. There has been no independent confirmation of this.

Earlier, the anti-Taleban forces said they were talking to the Taleban in the area to negotiate their surrender and a peaceful handover.

Local efforts to topple the Taleban in Kandahar - the powerbase of its supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar - were stepped up at the weekend with the seizure of the village of Takht-i-Pull, which cut off Spin Boldak from Kandahar.